Throwing

Throwing Weapons come in a number of varieties in Diablo II. There are throwing knives, axes, potions, and many types of javelins. All but the potions can be used as melee weapons, and all the weapons have higher damage when thrown than when used for melee.

The Barbarian's Throwing Mastery works with throwing axes, knives, and javelins when they are thrown. It does not work for melee. His Axe Mastery works with throwing axes during melee, but not when throwing. He has no Javelin Mastery, and throwing knives are Dagger Class, not Sword Class, so he has no Mastery to help there. His best bet is to use Axe Mastery and melee with throwing axes, or keep a weapon handy in the weapon switch slot in the Expansion.

Damage Bonus: This determines how you multiply the item damage by your stats to reach the actual damage. All throwing weapons in D2 are 100 Str, while in D2X they are 50Str/50Dex.

HK's Edit:

classic now has the same damage bonus of 0.5 str/0.5 dex as LOD does, at least with the 1.12 patch.

Item Level: Used in many in-game calculations. Monsters must be of this level to drop the item, and it factors in when you get to gamble for this item type as well. Check full Mlvl stats on Darkness.

Weapon Speed: A relative comparison to other weapons of the same type. 0 is the base -10, -20, etc is faster, 10, 20, etc is slower by one frame per 10.

Stack Size: Applies only to throwing weapons. Min = the smallest stack a monster can drop. Max = the largest a stack can possibly be. Throwing weapons stack only on others of their exact same type and mods, if magical.

Contents

One big change to throwing weapons from D2 to D2X is how their damage bonus works. In D2 throwing weapons are all 100 Str, which means for every point in Str you can add 1% of the weapon damage in bonus. In the Expansion throwing weapons are all 50/50 Str/Dex, so for every point in Str or Dex you can add .5% of the weapon damage. This means in the Expansion you will do more damage than in D2 if your Dex is higher than your Str. Since most throwing weapons require a lot of Dexterity, this is more natural, while making it harder to get really big damage, since you need 2 stat points to do the damage bonus of 1 strength point in Diablo II.

HK's Edit: in classic with the most recent-newest patch (1.12) the damage bonuses for throwing now works the same as it does in LOD. Both str and dex give a damage bonus for thrown damage at 50/50.

Durability on throwing weapons is a new addition in D2X. In D2 all throwing weapons are indestructible when used for melee. In Diablo II they all have durability (though it's not displayed in the game) which they lose at 1/3 the normal melee weapon rate when used for melee fighting. When the durability is expended one throwing weapon vanishes from the stack, just as if you'd thrown it.

* Durability on throwing weapons is only in the Expansion. Throwing weapons when used for melee combat lose durability, but at 1/3 the rate of normal weapons. When an item loses full durability it vanishes from the stack, just as if you'd thrown it.

* Durability on throwing weapons is only in the Expansion. Throwing weapons when used for melee combat lose durability, but at 1/3 the rate of normal weapons. When an item loses full durability it vanishes from the stack, just as if you'd thrown it.
** All Exceptional items are Clvl 25 in Diablo II. Some lower-quality ones are slightly lower in D2X.

* Durability on throwing weapons is only in the Expansion. These items now have durability like other melee weapons, but they lose it at 1/3 the normal rate. If a throwing item you are using for melee combat runs out of durability, it vanishes from the stack, just as if you'd thrown it.